Meaningful, Professional and Comprehensive

Representation for all Criminal Prosecutions

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(416) 924-0059

Pardons / Records Suspensions

A criminal record can drastically affect many areas of your life. Many employers conduct criminal background checks before hiring, and the discovery of your criminal record will likely have a significant negative impact on your likelihood of getting a job. Increasingly, employers are conducting criminal background checks before considering employees for advancement, and a criminal record may prevent you from progressing in your career. If a job requires you to be bonded, a criminal record will almost certainly lose you the job, as employers rarely want to take on the increased costs associated to having an employee with a record bonded. Even volunteer positions often require criminal background checks.

A criminal record may prevent you from traveling to other countries. If you are not a Canadian citizen, a criminal record may prevent you from becoming a citizen.

Even landlords are increasingly asking for criminal background checks before renting to a new tenant, so a criminal record may affect your ability to locate housing.

The good news is that you may be able to get a "record suspension", or pardon.

Before you can apply for a record suspension, you must first complete the requisite waiting period without committing any further offences. If you were convicted of a summary conviction offence, you must wait five years from the date of expiry of any sentence that you were ordered to serve. If you were convicted of an indictable offence, you must wait ten years from the date of expiry of any sentence that you were ordered to serve.

You are ineligible for a record suspension if you were convicted of sexual offences against a minor. You may be ineligible for a record suspension if you have been convicted of multiple indictable offences. The National Parole Board of Canada determines whether a record suspension will be granted or not.